1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile phone holder, in particular, which is easily attached or coupled to a body region of a user or an interior structure of a vehicle, rotated in a natural fashion according to movement of the user, and readily adjusted in angle by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known in the art, mobile phones such as a cellular phone and PCS which have been developed owing to information communication are being widely spread among common people while various functions are being added to the mobile phones according to desires of consumers. New techniques are under continuous development allowing expensive instruments to be carried and used in a more convenient and safe fashion, and examples thereof may include a so-called a handsfree holder or a holder for attaching a mobile phone to a waist belt of a user or to a dashboard of a vehicle.
The structure of such a portable phone holder will be briefly described as follows:
FIGS. 1 to 3 illustrate a type of holder which is attached to a region in a human body. The holder has a support member 2 fixed to the rear face of a housing 1 for receiving a portable phone and an hanger piece 3 coupled to the support member 2 via a fastening member 5, in which the hanger piece 3 has a number of concave fitting portions 4.
The attaching piece 10 is coupled to a holder 10 which has a body portion 11, a variable fastening portion 15, a pressing member 12, an attaching member 14 and a leaf spring 13.
The variable fastening portion 15 has a variable rotary shaft 17 removably attached to the hanger piece 3 in the rear face of the housing 1 and a variable fitting projection 17 projected in a lower portion of the variable rotary shaft 17 and selectively caught by the concave fitting portions 4 to be supported thereto.
The pressing member 12 is coupled to the body portion 11 to operate the variable fastening portion 15, the attaching member 14 is positioned in the rear face of the body portion 11, and the leaf spring 13 is coupled by both ends to the body portion 11 and the attaching member 14, respectively, for elastically supporting the lower end of the attaching member 14 toward the lower end of the body portion 11.
In such a conventional mobile phone holder, when the hanger piece 3 is inserted into the body portion 11 of the holder 10, the hanger piece 3 is coupled by its central portion to the variable rotary shaft 17 of the variable fastening portion 15, in which a corresponding one of the concave fitting portions 4 is supportedly coupled to the variable fitting projection 16. When the housing 1 is rotated from this position, the housing 1 is intermittently rotated as the concave fitting portions 4 are repeatedly coupled and released to/from the variable fitting projection 16.
FIG. 2 illustrates the coupled position between the variable fastening portion 15 and the hanger piece 3. Referring to FIG. 2, when the mobile phone is fastened to the holder 10 in a belt around the waist, the variable rotary shaft 17 of the variable fastening portion 15 is coupled to a central hole 3a of the hanger piece 3 while the variable fitting projection 16 of the variable fastening portion 15 is coupled to a corresponding one of the concave fitting portion 4 of the hanger piece 3. In this manner, the hanger piece 3 is supportedly coupled to the variable fastening portion 15.
When the mobile phone is rotated from this position, the variable fitting projection 16 of the variable fitting portion 15 is released from one of the concave fitting portions 4 as shown in FIG. 3 and coupled with another one of the concave fitting portions 4 so as to adjust the angle of the portable phone coupled to the holder 10. The conventional portable phone holder has a very weak coupling force between the variable fitting projection 16 and the concave fitting portions 4 so that the weight of the portable phone itself can arbitrarily change the position of the portable phone. In particular, the potable phone can be changed into an undesirable angle under a slight impact which may occur during walking.
One of reasons for this problem relates to the coupling depth d between the variable fitting projection 16 and the corresponding one of the concave fitting portions 4. If the concave fitting portions 4 of the hanger piece 3 have a too large depth d, the variable fitting projects 16 can be securely inserted and supported into the same so as to prevent any undesired rotation of the portable phone. However, when the portable phone is to be rotated, the variable fitting projection 16 may not be smoothly released from the concave fitting portions 4 so that the portable phone can be hardly adjusted in angle.
Therefore, the conventional portable phone holder is necessarily manufactured so that the variable fitting projection 16 is readily released from the concave fitting portions 4. For the purpose of this, it is required to manufacture the portable phone holder so that the end of the variable fitting projection 16 is slightly caught by the concave fitting portions 4 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. As set forth above, this results in a very weak coupling force between the variable fitting portion 16 and the concave fitting portions 4 so that the portable phone which is adjusted in angle is rotated into an undesired angle without being suitably supported.
Further, since the conventional portable phone holder is generally fixed to only a belt clip in use, a normal effect can be rarely expected if the waist belt is not worn. If the holder is fixed to the waist belt, it can be loosed down. Even if a slightest force is applied, the holder can be released even causing a reason of losing the portable phone.
Further, as the attaching member 14 in FIG. 1 is attached to the waist belt under the elastic force of the leaf spring 13, when a user sits on a chair or bends his/her waist as wearing the mobile phone, a lower portion of the housing 1 presses a body portion with a force larger than the elastic force of the leaf spring 13 so that the attaching member 14 can be released from the waist belt thereby causing the mobile phone to be lost.
In the meantime, FIGS. 4 and 5 shows a conventional holder structure installed in a vehicle. The holder 20 has a fixing plate 22 attached to a dashboard of a vehicle 27 and a holder body 21 installed on the fixing plate 22 with a hanging groove 23. The fixing plate 22 is generally made of flexible synthetic resin and the holder body 21 is made of rigid synthetic resin, in which the fixing plate 22 and the holder body 21 are fixedly connected via a connecting portion 25 as shown in FIG. 5.
In the holder 20 configured as above, a separately provided hanger piece 26 is attached to the rear portion of mobile phone M and then a coupling portion 26a of the hanger piece 26 is fixedly inserted into the hanging groove 23 in a vertical direction to be placed in a receiving space 24 of the holder body 21 so that the mobile phone M can be hanged. The un-designated reference number 26b is a double-sided tape.
However, in the conventional holder 20 of this configuration, the angle of the holder body 21 cannot be changed at all thereby creating a problem that sometimes a driver cannot watch a liquid crystal display of the mobile phone.
Further, the fixing plate 22 is attached to the dashboard 27 of the vehicle by using the double-sided tape 22a in general. If the dashboard 27 is heavily curved, attachment is not easy. Moreover, even if the fixing plate 22 is attached, the fixing plate 22 may be easily detached from the dashboard owing to vibration and impact of the vehicle and the weight of the mobile phone.